3.1.1 Using Default Port Numbers for Your Servers

By default, the servers that are created in each domain use the same set of port numbers (for example, the Administration Server uses port 7001). If you want to use custom port numbers, you can change the port number when you run the Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard:

The Administration Server port number can be changed on the Configure the Administration Server Screen.

The port number for all Managed Servers in your domain can be changed on the Configure Managed Servers Screen.

However, Oracle recommends that you use the default port numbers for all servers.

3.1.2 Using Default Settings for Managed Servers

While configuring Oracle WebCenter Portal, you can choose the components that you want to install. Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard automatically creates managed servers in the domain to host the selected WebCenter Portal components. Oracle recommends that you use the default configuration settings for these managed servers.

Created if Oracle WebCenter ActivityGraph Engines is selected on the "Select Domain Source" screen. This Managed Server hosts utility applications, such as Activity Graph and Analytics, as well as the Personalization server.

3.1.3 Shutting Down Running Managed Servers

If you are extending an existing WebLogic Server domain (Section 3.2.3, "Extending an Existing Domain"), you must shut down any Managed Servers that are currently running before you start the Configuration Wizard. If you do not, validation of your Managed Servers will fail due to port number conflicts from the Managed Servers that are currently running.

3.1.4 Running the Configuration Wizard with an Oracle RAC Database

If you are running the Configuration Wizard with a backend Oracle RAC database, Oracle recommends that you keep all the Oracle RAC instances configured for the service to be up and running. This will ensure that JDBC validation checks are reliable and minimize the possibility of accidental mis-configuration.

3.2 Configuration Instructions

You use the Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuration Wizard to configure Oracle WebCenter Portal.

If this is a new installation, you may want to create a new domain for WebCenter Portal. Alternatively, you can choose to extend another existing product domain to add WebCenter products. For example, if you have an existing Oracle SOA domain with Content Server, you can extend this domain to include Oracle WebCenter Portal products, in which case some configuration tasks become simpler.

If you have a situation where you may want to install multiple products but you do not want to patch them at the same time, then you should keep each product in its own separate domain.

If you are using a 32-bit operating system, Oracle JRockit SDK is installed as part of the Oracle WebLogic installation. This is the JDK that the Configuration Wizard will use by default. If you want to invoke the Configuration Wizard with the Sun JDK, do the following prior to starting the Configuration Wizard:

Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the location of the Sun JDK. For example, you can set it to the Sun JDK that was installed with Oracle WebLogic Server in the MW_HOME/jdk160_27 (on UNIX operating systems) or MW_HOME\jdk160_27 (on Windows operating systems) directory.

3.2.1.1 Creating a Configuration Log File

3.2.2 Creating a New Domain

To create a new WebLogic domain for your Oracle WebCenter Portal products, follow the instructions in "Creating a WebLogic Domain" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Creating Domains Using the Configuration Wizard.

This section discusses the naming convention for domains, the WebCenter Portal products that are available for configuration, and manually granting the administrator role to a nondefault user for WebCenter Portal: Spaces and Oracle WebCenter Discussions server. It contains the following subsections:

Table 3-2 lists the Oracle WebCenter Portal products available for configuration, and their dependencies. Note that if you select a product that has any dependencies, the dependencies are automatically selected for you on the Select Domain Source screen.

3.2.2.3 Granting Administrator Privileges to a Non-Default User

The domain administrator you create for Oracle WebCenter Portal is also the administrator for Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server. While creating a domain, if you specify any user other than weblogic as the domain administrator, that user is granted all the domain administrative rights. However, after creating the domain, you must manually grant the administrator role to that nondefault user for Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server. For information about granting the administrator role to a non-default user for:

3.2.3 Extending an Existing Domain

You can extend any Fusion Middleware product domain to add WebCenter Portal components. The Configuration Wizard will automatically detect the components that have already been installed and give you the option to add any WebCenter Portal products that do not already exist.

WebCenter Portal relies on the MDS schema. Depending on the WebCenter Portal components used in your applications, your WebCenter Portal installation may also require the following schemas: WEBCENTER, DISCUSSIONS, ACTIVITIES, and PORTLET.

MDS: WebCenter Portal applications can share the MDS schema. This means that multiple deployed applications can use the same MDS schema, each having its own partition defined in MDS.

WEBCENTER: There must be a distinct WEBCENTER schema for each WebCenter Portal application.

DISCUSSIONS: Two WebCenter Portal applications, both using Discussions, can use a single discussions server. The discussions server is wired to a single DISCUSSIONS schema. The only thing that must be unique is the category ID, which is set for each WebCenter Portal application when the Discussion Forum connection is configured. For information about setting the category ID, see how to set application.root.category.id using setDiscussionForumServiceProperty, in the Oracle WebCenter Custom WLST Commands chapter in Oracle Fusion Middleware WebLogic Scripting Tool Command Reference.

ACTIVITIES: Analytics and Activity Graph can be used only by a single application within a domain, whether it is the Spaces application or a Framework application.

PORTAL: Many Portlet Producer applications can be deployed to a single Custom Services Producer managed server. Portlet Producer applications can share a single PORTLET schema.

You can extend your existing WebCenter Portal domain to install additional WebCenter Portal products listed in Table 3-2. When you run the Configuration Wizard to extend the domain, you must select Generate a domain configured automatically to support the following products on the Select Domain Source screen, then select the product(s) you want to add to the domain (Figure 3-1).

Before extending a domain, make sure that schemas exist in your database for the components you plan to configure. For example, if you are planning to extend the domain and configure Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server, make sure the DISCUSSIONS schema exists in your Oracle database before you continue.

3.2.3.2 Extending a Domain to Create Custom Managed Servers

WebCenter Portal enables application developers to build two kinds of applications: Framework applications and Portlet Producer applications. To enable deployment of these applications, you must extend your domain with the required domain extension templates to create custom managed servers. While extending the domain, you can also customize the JDBC connections and change the JMS file store. The Configuration Wizard uses your input to update the configuration files, such as config.xml, and all other generated components in the domain directory, as required.

3.2.3.2.1 Creating a Custom Managed Server for Framework Applications

If your application developers need to develop Framework applications, you must create the Custom Portal managed server for deployment of these applications.

Note:

Framework applications can include various WebCenter Portal services. Some of these services require the WebCenter schema. There must be a distinct WEBCENTER schema for each Framework application. Before you create the Custom Portal managed server, you must run the RCU again to create a second version of the WebCenter schema. Note that this schema is separate from the WebCenter schema used by Oracle WebCenter Spaces, and therefore, make sure you use a different schema prefix.

To create the Custom Portal managed server, extend the domain with the oracle.wc_custom_portal_template_11.1.1.jar template. On the Select Domain Source screen, select the Base this domain on an existing template option, and click Browse to locate the template.

When you extend the WebCenter Portal domain with the custom portal template, it creates the Custom Portal managed server named WC_CustomPortal and targets all the necessary resources to it. It also adds the following JDBC data sources:

mds-CustomPortalDS (for accessing the MDS schema)

WebCenter-CustomPortalDS (for accessing the WebCenter schema)

Activities-CustomPortalDS (for accessing the Activities schema)

If your Framework applications use web services or your WebCenter Portal services use the security and policy manager, they require Oracle WSM Policy Manager. You must run the Configuration Wizard a second time to extend your domain with the Oracle WSM Policy Manager template if it is not already installed. This template is available on the Select Domain Source screen.

If your application developers need to build Portlet Producer applications, you must create a Custom Services Producer managed server for deployment of these applications. To create the managed server, extend the domain with the Custom Portal template, oracle.wc_custom_services_producer_template_11.1.1.jar. On the Select Domain Source screen, select Base this domain on an existing template, and click Browse to locate the template at the following paths:

When you extend the WebCenter Portal domain with the custom producer services template, it creates the Custom Services Producer managed server named WC_CustomServicesProducer and targets all the necessary resources to it. It also adds the following JDBC data sources:

3.2.3.2.3 Creating Multiple Custom Managed Servers

A template can be applied only once to a domain. If you want to create multiple custom Managed Servers, you must clone the existing custom Managed Server with the cloneWebCenterManagedServer() WLST command.

3.2.3.3 Extending a Domain to Enable Oracle BPM Process Spaces

Oracle Business Process Management (Oracle BPM) Process Spaces is a workspace built on top of WebCenter Portal: Spaces, and it provides spaces designed specifically for modeling and executing business processes. These spaces include a process workspace, a process modeling space, and a process instance space.

Process Spaces relies on Oracle WebCenter Content Server and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server for collaboration purpose. You can enable Process Spaces in Spaces by extending your WebCenter Portal domain with the Oracle BPM Spaces template. You also need to run the install.xml script. The installation script can be used for a single-server configuration as well as a cluster configuration.

Oracle BPM must be installed and up and running before you attempt to extend your domain with the Oracle BPM Spaces template. If you install Process Spaces without first installing Oracle BPM, the entire Spaces application will stop working.

Extend your WebCenter Portal domain using the Oracle BPM Spaces template. The template is available at the following location:

On UNIX: WebCenter_ORACLE_HOME/common/templates/applications/oracle.bpm.spaces_template_11.1.1.jar

On Windows: WebCenter_ORACLE_HOME\common\templates\applications\oracle.bpm.spaces_template_11.1.1.jar

Copy the SOA_ORACLE_HOME/bpm/process_spaces (on UNIX) or SOA_ORACLE_HOME\bpm\process_spaces (on Windows) folder from the SOA Oracle home directory to any location from where it would be able to connect to the WebCenter Portal installation.

Open the process-portal-install.properties file located in the process_spaces folder and specify the required Oracle BPM and WebCenter Portal properties as listed in Table 3-3.

Note:

For security purposes, you can skip specifying the passwords, and provide them later when prompted.

Table 3-3 Properties Specified in process-portal-install.properties

Property

Description

extendSoa

Specify the value as true if WebCenter Portal and SOA are in the same domain, else false.

promptForPasswords

The flag to decide whether to prompt for passwords or read them from the process-portal-install.properties file while running the installer.

Oracle BPM Schema Details

bpmDBUser

User name to connect to the database configured for Oracle BPM

bpmDBPassword

Password to connect to Oracle BPM's database

bpmDBType

Database type configured for Oracle BPM

bpmDBDriver

Driver used to connect to Oracle BPM's database

bpmDBUrl

URL of Oracle BPM's database, like jdbc:oracle:thin:@host:1521

Oracle BPM MDS Details

bpmMDSUser

User name for the MDS schema used for Oracle BPM

bpmMDSPassword

Password for Oracle BPM's MDS schema

Oracle BPM Runtime Details

bpmServerURL

Oracle BPM server URL.

For a single BPM server: t3://<bpmHost>:<bpmRuntimePort>

For example: t3://myHost:8001

For BPM cluster, specify separated list of BPM server URLs for all servers in the cluster in the following format:

t3://host1:port1,host2:port2,...

For example, t3://myHost1:8001,myHost2:8002,myHost3:8003

bpmAdminUser

Name of the user that has Administrator privileges on the Oracle BPM server

bpmAdminPassword

Password for the Oracle BPM Admin user

Spaces Installation Details

wcOracleHome

Path to the WebCenter Portal Oracle home directory

wcDomainName

Name of the domain where WebCenter is installed. If extendSoa flag is set to true, point to the BPM domain.

wcSetDomainRealmPassword

Flag to control whether to set the domain realm password; set the value to either true or false.

Note: This property is for setting up Global Trust. It is recommended that you set Global Trust manually; so set this property to false.

wcDomainRealmPassword

Password to set up trusted domains. Same password must be set on Oracle BPM domain as well.

Note: This property is for setting up Global Trust. It is recommended that you set Global Trust manually, and not by using this property.

wc.server.port

Port on which WC_Spaces managed server is hosted

WebCenter's WebLogic Installation Details

wcHost

Host name on which WebCenter's Admin server is running

wcAdminPort

Port number on which WebCenter's Admin server is running

wcAdminUser

Admin user for the WebCenter Admin server

wcAdminPwd

Password of the WebCenter Admin server

wcManagedServerName

In a single-server environment, specify the name of the managed server where Spaces is deployed.

In a clustered environment, specify the name of any one of the Spaces managed servers that is part of the cluster.

wcConfigServices

Flag to configure the Oracle Content Server and Discussions Server to work with Oracle WebCenter. The Content Server and Discussion Server details listed later in this table must be specified only if wcConfigServices is set to true.

If you do not start Oracle BPM, you may face problems logging into Spaces.

3.3 Post-Configuration Tasks

This section contains general information that will help you verify your installation and configuration. Some components may require custom or manual configuration, and this information is also included in this section:

3.3.1 Starting the Servers

3.3.1.1 Starting the Administration Server

The Administration Server serves as a central location from which to monitor all resources in a domain. It maintains the domain's configuration and distributes changes in the configuration to Managed Servers. There is one Administration Server for each domain.

To get your deployments up and running, you must start the Administration Server.

Navigate to the DOMAIN_HOME/bin directory.

Run either of the following scripts:

startWebLogic.sh (on UNIX)

startWebLogic.cmd (on Windows)

To interact with the Administration Server, you can use Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console, Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control, or Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST). The Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console and Fusion Middleware Control run in the Administration Server.

You can access the Administration Server console by using the following URL format:

http://administration_server_host:administration_server_port/console

For example: http://example.com:7001/console

Supply the username and password that you specified on the Configure Administrator Username and Password Screen of the Configuration Wizard.

To access the Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control Console, use the following URL format:

http://administration_server_host:administration_server_port/em

For example: http://example.com:7001/em

3.3.1.2 Starting the Node Manager

The Node manager allows starting and stopping the Managed Servers remotely. Once you start the Node Manager, you can start Managed Servers using the Administration Console, the Enterprise Manager Control Console, or the command line. The Node manager can also be used for:

Automatically restarting failed servers.

Automatic Service Migration when using consensus-based leasing.

Whole Server Migration.

While use of Node Manager is optional, it provides valuable benefits if your WebLogic Server environment hosts applications with high-availability requirements. It also allows for OPatch, which is a tool used to update or patch your existing software, to be run in an automated fashion.

3.3.1.3 Starting Managed Servers

To get your deployments up and running, you must start the various Managed Servers. This section describes the different ways in which you can start Managed Servers.

Note:

WebCenter Spaces supports automatic configuration of certain WebCenter services. For automatic service configuration to work, you must first start the managed servers associated with the services, and then start the WC_Spaces managed server. When starting managed servers, WC_Spaces must be started last.

3.3.1.3.1 Starting Managed Servers with a Startup Script

After configuring your WebCenter Portal domain, you will have a start script named startManagedWebLogic that you can use to start Managed Servers in the domain.

On UNIX operating systems:

Run DOMAIN_HOME/bin/startManagedWebLogic.shmanaged_server_nameadmin_url

On Windows operating systems:

Run DOMAIN_HOME\bin\startManagedWebLogic.cmdmanaged_server_nameadmin_url

Where managed_server_name specifies the name of the Managed Server that you want to start, and admin_url specifies the listen address (host name, IP address, or DNS name) and port number of the domain's Administration Server. This command also requires that you specify a server name. The servers that you may need to start are:

When you run the command, you are prompted for the WebLogic Server username and password. Supply the username and password that you specified on the Configure Administrator Username and Password Screen of the Configuration Wizard.

If you do not know the names of the managed servers that need to be started, you can view the contents of the following file:

On UNIX operating systems

DOMAIN_HOME/startManagedWebLogic_readme.txt

On Windows operating systems

DOMAIN_HOME\startManagedWebLogic_readme.txt

Or, you can access the Administration Server console at the following URL:

http://administration_server_host:administration_server_port/console

Supply the username and password that you specified on the Configure Administrator Username and Password Screen of the Configuration Wizard.

Note:

When you run the command to start a managed server, wait until the output of the command shows up. Before staring WC_Spaces, wait until all other managed servers are started.

The default port number for Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server is 8890.

3.4 Setting Up an External LDAP-Based Identity Store

By default, WebCenter Portal applications use Oracle WebLogic Server's embedded LDAP identity store for storing user accounts and groups, and an XML file-based policy store for storing policy grants. Although secure, the embedded LDAP identity store is not a "production-class" store. You must replace it with an external LDAP-based identity store, such as Oracle Internet Directory, for enterprise production environments. Further, the default XML file-based policy store can be used only for single-node WebCenter Portal configurations. For multi-node configurations, you must reassociate the policy store and the credential store with an external LDAP-based identity store. An external LDAP-based identity store manages identities of users across diverse servers and enables you to configure single sign-on (SSO) authentication across applications.

Oracle WebCenter Content Server and Oracle WebCenter Portal's Discussion Server rely on external LDAP-based identity stores. Therefore, if you want to use the Documents, Discussions, or Announcements services, you must install and configure an external LDAP-based identity store.

Table 3-4 describes the tasks that you must perform to configure an external LDAP-based identity store for WebCenter Portal.

If you configure an external LDAP-based identity store, Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces and all the back-end components configured for any WebCenter Portal services must use the same external LDAP-based identity store. Table 3-5 describes whether additional configuration is required for any back-end component if a shared external LDAP-based identity store is used.